| 2012 Sourwood Festival logo by George White |
The 35th annual Sourwood Festival in Black Mountain is just one month away. {Can you believe the year is going by this fast?!} The Sourwood Festival is a big-time small town mountain festival, with 200 vendors that you can browse, handmade arts and crafts, music, great food, activities for kids, and honey, honey, honey.
| “Magnolias” by Ann Whisenant on display/for sale at the Inn on Mill Creek |
OK, we admit it, we are “loco” for all things local. As a huge supporter of the local arts community, we’re proud to not only sponsor arts events, but we have several artists displaying their work at the Inn on Mill Creek for the enjoyment of our guests.
If you’ll be in our neighborhood of western North Carolina on Thursday, May 17, be sure to check out Taste of Black Mountain! This food lovers’ event held each year at the White Horse Black Mountain venue (and sponsored by businesses such as yours truly) is all about the fabulous cuisine coming out of our local restaurants in the Black Mountain area. What better way to discover the positive emphasis our area of the North Carolina mountains has on “buy local” and farm-fresh fare than tasting delicious food and beverage samples from our local eateries, farms, chocolatiers and pubs? Yum!
Who wants cookies? We are so very excited to be part of the first Visions of Sugar Plums Christmas Cookie Tour of Black Mountain area B&Bs! Nine inns and bed & breakfasts will be participating the weekend of December 10 & December 11 from noon to 4pm (our B&B will be on the tour on December 10). This means visitors will be able to get nine uniquely awesome cookie recipes and sample the cookies while checking out each Black Mountain area B&B decorated for the holidays.
We just took a quick glance at this weekend’s lineup of events and, well, there is a lot going on in the always-charming town of Black Mountain this weekend! Still lots of color on the trees and time to enjoy it…here’s what happening:
| The beautiful work of EAST artist Rebecca King |
The East of Asheville Studio Tour is a great way to meet local artists as they invite you to the studios where their art is created. The free self-guided studio tour takes place twice a year, in Spring and Fall. You can visit as many of the studios as you like over a two-day period.
We can’t wait for August, when Black Mountain’s Sourwood Festival is back in town! If you’ve ever been to a small town local festival and found that kind of irresistible small town charm that puts a smile on your face, then you’ll know why we love this one. The Sourwood Festival, now in its 34th year, pays tribute to the local area in the form of hundreds of arts and crafts booths, awesome food, entertainment, and a singing contest, plus honey and bee demonstrations. And it’s FREE. The festival is named after the sourwood tree and the fabulous honey produced from it {thank you honeybees!} which we use quite often at the Inn.
A stellar piece from Turtle Island Pottery. Their work is featured in several local galleries and at their own showroom in Old Fort. Photo Credit: Turtle Island Pottery Facebook Page
We wanted to share an upcoming event being sponsored by our friends at the fabulous music venue White Horse Black Mountain. As many of you know, parts of northern Japan are coping with the effects of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami earlier this month. Akira Satake, an artist, musician and native of Japan who lives in Swannanoa (the charming little town next door to Black Mountain) along with the folks at White Horse Black Mountain, have organized a benefit concert set for Thursday, March 31, 2011, at 7pm, to help those who have been affected by this tragedy.
The weekend of December 3-4, 2010, will be a special one for residents and visitors to Black Mountain, the closest town to the Inn on Mill Creek (approximately 10 minutes west).
